You got some skills my friend! Wish you were in my town, so I can come over to learn.

 

This is my beater....Not really but I drive soo much that it really is important to have a safe, quiet reliable car. This is the flavor that i'm going with for the next 3-5 years. Putting the Seafoam in the gas tank doesn't produce a smoke show as when you feed it into the vacumm lines in the intake. The car needs more miles before I put it in the intake.

Thanks! Yes those are the big heavy *** oem rotors. I was going to go aftermarket but decided against it at the last minute.

If you search on this tranny subject being sealed, you will find a lot of mixed answers as I did. I took the skid plate off the bottom of the car to expose the transmission pan and I found not one but two drain plugs on the bottom. One was to drain and the other was to fill, I think! I got such little credable information on all of this. I looked at the return lines going from the radiator and still had issues figuring this thing out.
I decided to call a friend who got me in contact with a tech from Hendrick Lexus and I asked him what he suggested to do. I explained I will be at the 100k mark by the end of the summer. He said, we have a machine that we plug into the trans pan that will flush 13 qts into it. People have done this with our car as early as 15k. On the sealed units. The #1 cause of Auto transmission faliure is dirty oil getting into the lines. I think I will pay 229 every 60k and be assured of no transmission failure in the future. Think about the cost of doing this service and think about the cost of a new transmission. It's a no brainer in my book!
No I didn't but I wasn't expecting it too. I wanted the fluid out BEFORE the transmission was shifting wierd and the damage was done.

Thanks and yeah I have my time behind the wheel.

Isn't that the truth!! I made the garage a place you want to be in and I have gotten a lot of work done in it. Oh yeah, the cold beer helps too


Thanks man! I got the felt at a Hobby Lobby. It can be found in any crafts store. Fabric stores may have it as well.


Thanks for all the nice words guys. Check in from time to time to see what other updates I do.

 

awesome thread!!

What kind of rims are those? Post some pics of them when you get them mounted!
If you are interested in selling your OEM's, shoot me a PM.

 

Awesome post John. You just saved me a ton of future research. The pictures are a great help too. Much appreciated! Keep up the great work.

How do you like the ride with the springs?

 

The new rims are MRR HR2. I always loved the style of the rim back when I had my older car. I'm keeping the OEM rims as an extra set.


Hey Chris! The ride is great with the new springs. Not a bad ride at all and the car handles much better. I thing it should improve some once I get my 275 rear tires on it. Anytime you need a helping hand on the car, pm me and I would be glad to help!

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

Great thread!!!!!! What are the specs on the bolts used to help take off the front rotors?? I am about to do a complete replacement of both front and rear brakes.

 

Absolutely superb thread. I am thoroughly impressed with your initiative.

Congrats on the new wheels. Those are one of top 3 favorites.

I'm looking forward to seeing pics of your ML+ install!

 

I had the bolts from some of my machine parts I used from Japan. They are a M8*20. You should be able to get them at Lowes or a good hardware store who carries metric.


Part 4:

Well, the tires finally came in on Monday so I had them mounted and balanced and brought them home and installed them on the car. I really love this rim style and because the specs are right and the spoke comes all the way to the edge, it makes the rims appear (my opinion) bigger than they are.

I will let you be the judge:








The springs have settled and the new tires are on so I went down to the brand new Firestone and signed the GS to a lifetime alignment on the Hunter machine and I'm glad I did.

Before and after:



I ordered the DRL kit from V-leds with the LED setup and I have to say, I am happy with the results. They could have had a drawing with the kit on how it is hooked up but I figured it out.

The V-leds kit complete with all that you need:




Old and New:



I took all the covers off and removed the airbox to run all the wires and do a clean install:




With the covers on the wires are all hidden.

I got the parking LED lights and these little bad boys really do the job!

Parking lights on the top and the DRL and highbeam light in the center:



Time to install the 3000k HID fogs:



The parking lights only:





The DRL:




The hid fogs and all the lights on:





That's all I got for the end of the year. I'm waiting for the ML+ to come hopefully by this weekend but I don't see myself installing the unit until next weekend.

Enjoy the pictures guys and have a great New Years!!

 

Wow, very nice my friend....

 

I agree, this is a great thread. You have mad Skills!!!

 

Wheels look great.

DRL looks great too, but if you're in North Carolina, aren't you going to miss the high beams?

 

The car looks great. Are you going to miss having a high beam?

Even though I only use the high beam once a year or so, that one time I am always thankful that it's still there.

 

How much were the rims alone without tires?

 

I asked him about the high beams too. Apparently this kit is able to power the LED at both high beam and the reduced DRL wattage. This kit could be the holy grail to the DRL/high beam dilemma.

 

But how on earth could that LED bulb put out as much light as the halogen at full wattage, or even close to it, to actually be useful for anything other than flashing somebody at night?